


Don't Look Back

by androgynousclintbarton



Series: Rival Clan AU [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-16
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:27:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24215917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/androgynousclintbarton/pseuds/androgynousclintbarton
Summary: Kakashi and Gai meet at the front gate to Konoha, ready to make their escape and start their new journey. Unfortunatly, someone's waiting for them when they get there.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Maito Gai | Might Guy
Series: Rival Clan AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1741204
Comments: 1
Kudos: 51





	Don't Look Back

Konoha looked small from Kakashi’s spot on top of the front gate. He could see the entire village from his spot. The Hokage’s residence, the hospital. Nothing was out of sight even with one eye now blind.

He thought for a second that he might miss it here. After all, it was his home. Where he grew up, trained, met his friends.

Well, his one friend. Thankfully he wouldn’t have to say goodbye to them.

“Kakashi!” He turned his attention away from the village and down towards the ground where Gai now stood, a back pack thrown over his shoulder and a soft smile on his face “I’m ready!”

Good. He was eager to get out of the village. Even with the things he did miss, he wanted to get as far away from his clan as possible.

“You got everything?” He asked, stepping over the edge of the gate and dropping down to land in front of Gai “I wouldn’t want you to forget anything.”

“I’ve got it all,” Gai promised with a small smile “though, I would have loved to say goodbye to Papa…”

“We still have time,” Kakashi offered “the sun just set, everyone is in bed. No one is going to be awake for hours to stop us.”

“No,” Gai shook his head “he’d try to stop me. Anyone in the clan would. This is the dumbest thing I could do in their eyes.”

Kakashi nodded his head. He understood the fear Gai was experiencing. If his father was still alive he was sure he’d frown upon Kakashi’s choice. Tell him to reconsider. To stay with the clan.

“Let’s go then,” he held out a hand towards Gai, watching as his friend looked down at it for a second before reaching out to lock their fingers together. “Find something new together.”

“I can’t wait to see what it is.” Gai smiled brightly “but, your eye…”

Kakashi brushed Gai’s other hand away when he reached out to touch the bandages over his injured eye “it’s fine,” he promised “the pain will go away and it was worth it. It would have hurt more if you had been injured or…” the word got stuck in his throat. He knew he had made the right choice in protecting Gai, even if it had cost him his eye.

Gai seemed to understand though, curling his fingers a little tighter around Kakashi’s hand. “Let’s go then.” He smiled that beautiful bright smile.

“Alright.” Kakashi nodded, turning towards the gate and heading towards it, ready to make his final exit from the village when someone stepped out from the other side and directly in their path.

“Papa…” Gai moved swiftly, placing himself between Kakashi and his father as Dai stepped a little closer to them “don’t hurt him, I can explain.”

Where Kakashi expected to see anger, he saw a smile. “I’m not here to hurt him,” the words were spoken with fondness. A promise to his son.

“Then why…” Gai’s shoulders relaxed when his father closed the distance between them and pulled him into a strong hug “Papa…”

“You didn’t think I was going to let you leave without a goodbye, did you?” Kakashi diverted his gaze, certain that this was a moment he wasn’t supposed to be seeing. “beside’s, you forgot something at the house.”

“I did?” Kakashi tried his best not to look. To give Gai and his father their privacy, but when he heard the small gasp leave his friends throat, he couldn’t help it. He had to know.

So he looked, and when he saw a pair of nun chucks now laying in his hand with the Might clan symbol, he smiled under his mask.

“But, Papa,” Gai seemed confused by the gesture “I’m not…I’m leaving…”

“You’re still a Might,” Dai assured his son “and no matter what anyone else says, you always will be. In fact,” he turned his eyes towards Kakashi, smiling when the young Shinobi looked away in embarrassment “I think you’re the best the Might Clan has to offer.”

“Papa…” He was certain that Gai had hugged his father again. That was the only reason he could think of for the sudden ‘thud’ that he heard, indicating that someone had fallen onto their ass. Gai never had known his own strength when it came to hugs.

“I will miss you, Turtle,” He winced. Now the scene was getting really personal, and he had no escape. No way to give them their privacy without disappearing on Gai. “But I know what you’re doing is right. And I know that you’ll be safe.”

He could feel the man’s eyes on him again, but this time he didn’t look back. He was too scared to. Too unsure of what exactly he would see in the eyes of a man who was supposed to hate him.

It didn’t last long though. Within seconds he could feel a hand on his shoulder, forcing him to look up at Gai’s father as he smiled down at him.

“He told me to give this to you when you were ready,” A hand stretched out in front of him, dragging his attention downwards to the item that Gai’s father was holding out to him. A Tanto that Kakashi had thought long gone. “I was starting to think I’d never get the chance.”

“When…” He didn’t actually need an answer. It didn’t take a genius to figure out when his father had met with Gai’s. When he had been able to give him his old Tanto.

“You two should get going,’ Dai said in substitution of an answer to his question “The clan plans on checking up on Gai tonight after what happened. They’ll notice that he’s gone and go searching for him.”

He pushed his hand forward, forcing Kakashi to take the Tanto as he stood up straight. “Papa…” Gai looked like he wanted to argue, or at least to try and convince his father to join them. Something more than returning to his clan without his son.

“I wish I could,” Dai smiled a familiar blinding smile “but once they realize you’re gone they will try to find you, and they won’t take pity on Kakashi if they see him with you.”

Kakashi’s heart ached as he listened to those words. The words of a man who was about to do something extremely dangerous. Something he wasn’t likely to survive.

“We can’t just leave you.” Gai argued, moving to close the distance between him and his Papa when a Kunai came down and lodged into the ground just in front of his feet.

Kakashi moved swiftly, placing himself between Gai and whoever had thrown the weapon, and keeping his friend back as 4 members of the Might clan landed directly in front of them. For a second he was sure he was about to lose the other eye, or worse, when Dai appeared between them and sent the nearest member of his clan flying backwards.

“Kakashi…” Dai looked back at him with the same bright smile on his face, but this time when Kakashi met his eyes they displayed something else. Something dangerous.

He nodded his head, understanding what the man was trying to say to him, and reached back to grab hold of Gai’s hand before turning around and starting to run towards the gate. It took all of his strength to ignore Gai’s protests and keep running. To drown out the please for them to go back for Dai, to do something.

Kakashi knew there was nothing to do. The Might Clan had countless members who could be called upon easily if that small group wasn’t enough. The fight would never end, just like the fights they insisted on having with his own clan.

They would never be able to get away, and if they survived, which Kakashi was certain that he wouldn’t, he’d never see Gai again. Everything they talked about, dreamed about, would be gone.

He didn’t want that, and the look in Dai’s eyes told him that he wasn’t alone.

So he did what he had to in order to protect Gai. To secure their escape.

He ran.

And no matter how hard it was. How much it hurt, he didn’t look back.


End file.
